How do I back up media with JVC GY 100?

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PandoraFilmmaker

Member
Okay, I posted the question on the documentary forum but didn't get any suggestions - probably because this problem is more specific to JVC. I'm in the middle of a large project that could possibly use a few hundred tapes and take several years to complete. Normally one would make a saftey copy of each tape and store them at another location. I have the JVC deck, but ofcourse I don't have 2 of them, nor do I want to use the camera for dubbing purposes. So this means either:

1) Dub and downconvert to SD using another deck. One thing I know is that if you do this, it won't preserve the time code - but that's not a huge issue. Also, how would such downconverted footage looks if I had to use it and then upconvert back to 720? Would there be visible quality loss, or is the info somehow magically preserved in the digital format?

2) Clone the hard-drives containing the media and store off site. Expensive, and I have to wait until the hard drive is filled up before cloning.

3) Burn all of the QT files on to DVDs. Very cumbersome and time consuming.


So please, I'm sure someone must have grappled with these very same problems. How do you back up your media?
 
Don't bother cloning the tapes. Leave those as-is.

Make a duplicate hard disk once you have your footage captured. You say you'll have "a few hundred" tapes; let's say 300 (which is a huge, huge amount)... 300 JVC HDV tapes, full to the brim, would take up about 3 terabytes. Assuming you're still a year away from finishing this and digitizing it all in, you'll probably be able to buy three terabytes of hard disk space for under $1000. Way cheaper than buying 300 tapes!
 
PandoraFilmmaker said:
Okay, I posted the question on the documentary forum but didn't get any suggestions - probably because this problem is more specific to JVC. I'm in the middle of a large project that could possibly use a few hundred tapes and take several years to complete. Normally one would make a saftey copy of each tape and store them at another location. I have the JVC deck, but ofcourse I don't have 2 of them, nor do I want to use the camera for dubbing purposes. So this means either:

1) Dub and downconvert to SD using another deck. One thing I know is that if you do this, it won't preserve the time code - but that's not a huge issue. Also, how would such downconverted footage looks if I had to use it and then upconvert back to 720? Would there be visible quality loss, or is the info somehow magically preserved in the digital format?

2) Clone the hard-drives containing the media and store off site. Expensive, and I have to wait until the hard drive is filled up before cloning.

3) Burn all of the QT files on to DVDs. Very cumbersome and time consuming.


So please, I'm sure someone must have grappled with these very same problems. How do you back up your media?
Click to expand...
You're shooting to tape or HDD? If to tape, you have your archive method already. If to HDD then you should dub to tapes and keep them as your archive method. If you're dubbing to tape from the HDD DTE then the dub will be lossless and I recommend you keep your files original for archive.

have fun...
 
Barry - Actually the JVC tapes I use are 2.35 a piece in large quantities - so even if I dub 300, it wouldn't be so bad. The question is - do I lose dubbing the tapes to SD?

Stephen - My only concern about the hard drive cloning, is that I have to WAIT until the hard drive is filled up before making the clone and storing somewhere else. It would be nice to have a system that allows me to back up every week or so. Then again, maybe I could do this if I store the cloned drive in a location nearby.

Please let me know if you have any other thoughts.
 
PandoraFilmmaker said:
Barry - Actually the JVC tapes I use are 2.35 a piece in large quantities - so even if I dub 300, it wouldn't be so bad. The question is - do I lose dubbing the tapes to SD?

Stephen - My only concern about the hard drive cloning, is that I have to WAIT until the hard drive is filled up before making the clone and storing somewhere else. It would be nice to have a system that allows me to back up every week or so. Then again, maybe I could do this if I store the cloned drive in a location nearby.

Please let me know if you have any other thoughts.
Click to expand...
What I meant by hard drive is the DTE solution you can get from JVC (ie Firestore). If you're shooting to tape then you have the archive already (the tape you're shooting). You won't get a better archive format than tape. If you're looking for redundancy then capture the tape to your NLE's media drive and then store the tape as the archive.
 
Yes, that does make sense. The question becomes - WHERE to store the tapes. I even have a temperature controlled storage facility(Iron Mountain) that I used for my feature film -- but it's in New Jersey and I'm in Cleveland - and I don't like the idea of routinely mailing tapes. As far as I know there are no temperature controlled storage facilities nearby. So I might do as you sugested and clone the hard drives and store in safety deposit box nearby. I guess there's no easy answer to this question of archiving, but I think you've both helped me figure out a decent alternative
 
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